What will be the qualifying origin of the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018?

The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 will be the 63rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It will take place for the first time in Portugal following the country's first victory at the 2017 contest in Kiev, Ukraine with the song "Amar pelos dois", performed by Salvador Sobral. The contest will be held at the Altice Arena in Lisbon and will consist of two semi-finals on 8 and 10 May and a final on 12 May 2018. The three live shows will be hosted by Filomena Cautela, Sílvia Alberto, Daniela Ruah and Catarina Furtado.

This year’s contest offers a great variety of styles, rhythms and languages. Following Sobral’s victyory last year in Kiev with a song performed in his native language, this year 15 countries will be performing in their own languages (including UK, Ireland and Australia). For the first time in history, the Eurovision stage will be offering entries in Armenian and Georgian languages. Moreover, there will be 13 songs performed in other language than English as Portugal, France, Spain, Italy, Albania, Armenia, Greece, Serbia, Georgia, Hungary, Montenegro and Slovenia will sing in their native language, while Estonia will perform a song in Italian.

Semi-final 1 is the blockbuster of this year’s competition. There are countries rated with big chances of winning, such as Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Israel, but also few that are known for getting good results in the past years, including Bulgaria, Armenia and Austria. The only country which is scheduled to perform in this semi-final that has a 100% percentaje of qualifying in the Grand Final is Azerbaijan, which is set to sing in the first half.

Israel is viewed as the country with biggest chances of winning this semi-final and the Grand Final too. Netta Barzilai and her song “Toy” has already topped charts all around the Europe and is set to become a hit on European radios till the date of the contest. From the moment Netta had her first audition in Israel the big question surrounding her performances was whether the Eurovision rules would allow this kind of performance. Netta is using a vocal looper which is a mobile recording device that allows her to record her voice, several times in a loop, until a playback is formed. According to the latest reports the EBU will allow her to use her own special toy on stage, as long as the voices will be recorded to the looper during her live performance.

When the draw of the semi-final was made, the 2nd semi-final looked even more hard than the 1st one, but this fast was denied when the songs started to be revealed. Four countries that have always qualified are in there: Romania, Ukraine, Russia and Australia, but out of these 4, the only with chances of winning seems to be Ukraine. Also to mention between the highlights of this semi-final is Norway’s Alexander Rybak, who wants to become the first Norwegian with 2 Eurovision trophies. Moreover, Netherlands’ Waylon and Sweden’s Benjamin Ingrosso also are on the extended list of possible winners of the contest.

Regarding the Big 5 and the host country, Italy, Spain and France are hoping for the victory, as they are big fan favorites. While UK looks to be out of the subject we are talking about, Portugal and Germany could be the dark horses of the Grand Final but even though their chances of winning are insignificant.